Renzi crowns swift ascent to premier

PD leader is Italy's youngest PM

(ANSA) - Rome, February 22 - Matteo Renzi on Saturday
crowned a swift ascent to Italy's top job on the basis of a
strong reform platform which has broad popular appeal.

Renzi, Italy's youngest premier at 39, was sworn by
President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday and confidence votes
are expected to back his administration by Tuesday night.

Thanks to his relative youth and lack of national
experience, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD)
is seen as representing the kind of generational change that
corruption-weary voters just might be looking for.

Renzi, Italy's third straight unelected premier, has been
mayor of his native Florence for five years and and has never
been a member of parliament - which to many, is a strong
advantage in Italian politics, tainted by decades of scandal,
pork-barrel policies and political entitlement.

He was defeated in his first bid in December 2012 to take
the PD leadership, ending well behind Pier Luigi Bersani, who
resigned after he failed to create a coalition government
following February 2013's inconclusive general election and two
months of stalemate.

Renzi persevered and in December 2013 won a subsequent PD
party primary by a landslide.

He continues to ride the wave of strong approval ratings
that have led some to compare him to a young Tony Blair, the
telegenic former Labour prime minister of Britain who was
criticized by some for steering his party away from its leftist
roots but drew masses of middle-class voters back after the
Thatcher years with his 'Third Way' between progressive social
policies and business-friendly economic ones.

The law-school graduate from the University of Florence
plays up his youthful and dynamic image, usually appearing on
stage in black jeans and a white shirt, cuffs rolled back to
indicate his willingness to get down to business.

In a photo spread for the Italian issue of Vanity Fair
magazine published shortly before the December primary, Renzi
appeared in a similarly styled outfit, demonstrating his
preparedness for the hard work of governing Italy.

He is also frequently photographed in dark glasses and a
leather bomber jacket, a contrast to the usual buttoned-down
designer suits of Italy's political class and the basis of
frequent comparisons to legendary TV character Fonzie, the
essence of cool.

Similarly, he is often seen riding a bicycle or driving a
Smart car, nods to his environmental awareness.

Renzi's ascent has been relatively swift despite claims he
has little real-world experience other than a stint working for
his family's marketing services firm.

The father of three children and a Catholic Boy Scout for
20 years, Renzi was a Wheel of Fortune winner at 19 and is known
for his common touch and fast-talking command of policy briefs -
though critics claim he is too fond of sound-bites.

He is often seen dominating political chat shows, while the
cameras have followed him in his passions for running and five-a
side soccer.

Renzi cut his teeth in the Italian People's Party, the
main heir to the Christian Democrat (DC) party that ruled Italy
from the war until the Bribesville scandals of the early 1990s.

He joined the PD in 2007 and is seen as having the
strongest centrist Catholic roots in the party's leadership
history, dominated by post-Communists.

He was distrusted by old-guard leftists but the party swung
solidly behind him when he proved his cross-party appeal as the
PD's best answer to the centre right's charismatic and
unsinkable leader, Silvio Berlusconi, who was only ever defeated
by another former Christian Democrat, Romano Prodi, on two
occasions.

Renzi first served as president of Florence province, a job
he held for five years, before he was elected mayor of the city
of Florence itself in June 2009 by a strong vote, almost 50%
compared with his rival's 32%.

Only a year after being sworn into that post, Renzi began
to talk about the need for great change at the national level,
and of the necessity of scrapping the old way of doing business
while presenting himself as a voice for a new generation of
Italians.

As a result, he was dubbed 'Rottamatore' (Scrapper) or,
more recently, Demolition Man.

Since becoming PD secretary two months ago, Renzi
repeatedly - until very recently - dismissed suggestions he
might also try to scrap Enrico Letta, his PD colleague who had
been premier of a roughly crafted coalition government since
last April.

Letta, the PD's deputy leader behind Bersani, had been
recruited by President Giorgio Napolitano to lead an
unprecedented left-right coalition government following last
year's post-election deadlock and Bersani's failure to woo the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comedian-turned-politician
Beppe Grillo, the third force in Italian politics.

Letta steered a tricky path under constant sniping from the
other senior coalition partner, the now-defunct People of
Freedom (PdL) party of media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, who
eventually stormed out after failing to bring the government
down when the PD insisted on the three-time premier's ejection
from parliament on a tax-fraud conviction.

Letta appeared to making faster progress on much-needed
reforms with a more streamlined coalition where the PD was a far
bigger partner of the New Centre Right, a new breakaway party
from Berlusconi's reanimated Forza Italia (FI) party.

But Renzi recently stepped up criticism of Letta's style,
lack of progress on reforms to election law and improvements to
the economy, before torpedoing the former premier in a ruthless
five-minute speech to the PD executive last week.

Renzi also pulled off a coup in January when he teamed up
with Berlusconi to draft a new election law, replacing one that
was quashed as unconstitutional last year.

He hailed the deal as achieving in "a week" what
politicians had failed to agree on for almost a decade, but the
agreement with the left's old enemy drew anger from some in the
PD, who accused Renzi of helping Berlusconi rehabilitate his
political image after the 77-year-old billionaire's ban from
holding office.

The NCD, which is expected to team up with Berlusconi at the
next elections despite a recent spat pundits reckoned was phony,
reportedly insisted on a justice minister who would uphold the
rights of suspects and defendants, especially from wiretapping
they and Berlusconi say is intrusive and unnecessary.

It also openly said it had forced Renzi not to try to
achieve electoral reform immediately, as he had vowed, but
instead link it to wider Constitutional reforms which will take
years.